Archive for the 'Eels' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

It’s been nearly four years since James Taylor launched the much-loved Troubadour Reunion Tour with his old ’70s session pals and a fellow songwriting legend, Carole King. Now, though he hasn’t issued a new disc since a 2008 covers collection, the venerable Hall of Famer – whose voice sounds virtually the same at 65 as it did when he made his recording debut more than four decades ago – has announced a lengthy tour that launches on the West Coast and quickly comes to the Hollywood Bowl on June 7.

Tickets, $25-$195, go on sale Monday, March 3, at 10 a.m. Also see JT with his self-proclaimed All-Star Band at Santa Barbara Bowl on June 4, $54-$120, on sale March 7.

Blake Shelton: Speaking of Bowl bookings, Miranda Lambert’s husband will wrap up his coming Ten Times Crazier Tour with a night at the Hollywood landmark, Oct. 4. That show will be preceded by a stop in Vegas the night before to headline the MGM Grand Garden Arena, though the country star, still touting last year’s platinum-selling Based on a True Story …, turns up by the border a month sooner, appearing Sept. 6 at Sleep Train Amphitheater in Chula Vista.

Shelton has selected three opening acts: the Band Perry, Dan & Shay and Neal McCoy. Tickets for at least two of those dates are going on sale soon: the Bowl, $37.50-$99.50, at 10 a.m. Monday, and Sleep Train, $29.60-$59.35, at 10 a.m. Friday.

When Mumford & Sons announced another run of dates earlier this year, with the self-proclaimed Gentlemen of the Road setting off on a Summer Stampede Tour from Calgary to Telluride, the question arose: With only two similar-sounding albums under their belts – 2010's self-titled debut and 2012's Grammy-winning Babel – what more could they bring live that their fans hadn't already seen recently?

Particularly in Southern California, how could the British neo-folk quartet top an early career pinnacle, last November's utterly commanding two-night coup at the Hollywood Bowl?

The answers unfolded tremendously during Sunday's stop at Devore's San Manuel Amphitheater, where they transformed the normally drab and remote location into an enchanting environment for a single-day festival that reached beyond the limitations of the outfit's catalogue, creating an unforgettable experience.

That alternate reality manifested itself from start to finish. As attendees poured in when gates opened at 3 p.m., they were greeted by custom-designed signage reading "Mumford & Sons Regional Park at Glen Helen Pavilion." The entire venue, including campgrounds complete with a swimming pool that opened Thursday night, was decked out with colorful banners, flags and balloon lanterns hanging in the trees. Even the walls flanking the enormous stage were covered by images of towering fir trees to drive home the welcoming, outdoorsy atmosphere.

The man they call E fronting his band in Santa Ana. Photo: Kelly A. Swift, for the Register. Click for more.

It probably wasn’t the smartest move for Mark Oliver Everett to have picked Valentine’s Day for the opening of his latest tour with long-running band Eels.

Any other night this week and they likely would have packed the Observatory, a venue the man called E and his loyal cohorts have routinely filled for such launches going back to when this was still the decrepit Galaxy Theatre. Instead, the place was half-empty at best, enthusiastic acolytes crowding the pit but otherwise leaving the rest of the venue sparsely dotted.

(Frankly, it was livelier in the Constellation Room down the hall, where the cooler kids were crammed to hear suddenly buzzing L.A. band Foxygen – bolstered by a justifiable Pitchfork rave for their second psychedelic pastiche, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic – plus an intriguingly shadowy turn from Wampire and some convoluted noise-pop from headliner Unknown Mortal Orchestra.)

• Carrie Underwood: Missed seeing the country superstar's Blown Away Tour when it packed Staples Center last month? You're in luck. As was announced virtually the moment that show ended, Underwood will return to headline March 3 at Citizens Business Bank Arena, the venue she helped christen in 2008. Once again, roadmate Hunter Hayes opening. Tickets, $43.50-$66, go on sale Friday, Nov. 30, at 10 a.m.

• We Hate Hurricanes: Beck will join a lineup of funny people – Aziz Ansari, Sarah Silverman and Will Ferrell – for a Hurricane Sandy benefit Dec. 10 at Club Nokia, with proceeds going to AmeriCares. Mad Men star Jon Hamm will serve as MC, special guests are expected. Tickets, $38.50-$58.50, are on sale Saturday at 10 a.m.

Also at that L.A. Live venue: routinely acclaimed soul star Erykah Badu, Dec. 29, $45-$85; Excision, with Paper Diamond and Vaski, Feb. 9, $25-$39.50; and Queensrÿche ("starring Geoff Tate") celebrating the 25th anniversary of the prog-rock band's 1988 concept album Operation: Mindcrime by performing it in full, $19.50-$55. All of those are on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

• Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth: The notorious heavyweight champ brings his autobiographical Broadway success, directed by Spike Lee, to City National Grove of Anaheim on March 6. Tickets, $37.50-$67.60, go on sale next Friday, Dec. 7, at 10 a.m. Want to meet him? For $300, you get VIP access to a post-show meet-and- greet including a photograph with the iconic fighter. For $500, you also get a boxing glove he will sign on site.

Lightning in a Bottle -- This annual electronica-filled experience is fast becoming Southern California's version of Nevada's week-long Burning Man bacchanal, but that doesn't quite encapsulate everything that this three-day takeover of Oak Canyon Ranch in Irvine mixes together, including performance-art pieces from creator and Coachella fixture the Do Lab as well as neo-cabaret troupe the Lucent Dossier Expereince, plus yoga and meditation sessions and scads of mood and dance music.

Pretty Lights and a DJ set from Thievery Corporation cap a roster that also features Bonobo, Mimosa, Nick Warren, Pantyraid, Random Rab and the Infinidroid, Baths, Claude VonStroke and more. (The video clip below, culled from last year's gathering, fairly well conveys what the festival is like.) Tickets are $80 per day, $160 for a two-day pass and $225 for a full-weekend pass. The latter two include campground access, though car and RV camping spots are sold out. Children under 12 are free, children 13-17 are $100 at the door, and no one under 18 will be permitted without a parent or guardian. lightninginabottle.org, beticketing.com/LIB11

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95jfk624rRs[/youtube]

Glee Live! On Stage! -- Lea Michelle, Dianna Agron, Chris Monteith, award-winner Chris Colfer, that actor with the most tuneful name (Chord Overstreet) and more from the cast of the Fox musical sensation have hit the road once more and arrive this weekend for four shows: tonight at Honda Center in Anaheim (2695 E. Katella Ave.), $25.50-$89.50; two performances on Saturday, 3 and 8 p.m., at Staples Center in Los Angeles (1111 S. Figueroa St.), $29.50-$89.50; and Sunday at Valley View Casino Center, formerly San Diego Sports Arena (3500 Sports Arena Blvd.), $49.50-$89.50. 800-745-3000. ticketmaster.com

Usher / Akon -- With Senegalese R&B star Akon as huge-draw opener, the man who would be the new Michael Jackson brings the extended stateside run of his OMG Tour to a close Wednesday night at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, 1111 S. Figueroa St., a month before Usher heads to the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans. Tickets are $29.50-$125. 800-745-3000. ticketmaster.com

The man called E certainly has an affinity for the Galaxy Theatre. As he has so often in the past (even as recently as last August), long-bearded Mark Oliver Everett is once more planning to use the Santa Ana venue for a warm-up gig, this time for an Eels world tour that immediately after will take him and his crew to Beijing, Shanghai and then across Europe.

The outing, the band's first this year following 2010's trilogy of albums (Hombre Lobo, End Times and Tomorrow Morning), begins at the Galaxy on June 1, then heads to those first-ever China dates four days later. Eventually Eels return to the States, concluding their run with an Aug. 12 show at El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. Stay tuned for on-sale info.

Also coming to the Mouse House: Daniel Lanois' acclaimed new group Black Dub, May 27, $22.50-$45. And there are two hip-hop additions at HOB Sunset Strip: Mobb Deep on May 28, $30 (or $97.50 for VIP), and Tech N9ne on June 17, $30. All of those gigs go on sale Friday, April 1, at 10 a.m.

As Eels returned to the stage for its first encore Tuesday at the Galaxy Theatre, frontman Mark Oliver Everett (above, from a 2006 performance in Switzerland) spoke to the crowd about the special nature of the night.

"We like coming down here to test things out," said the man called E of the reason why several times now, dating back to at least the release of Souljacker (2001) and Shootennany! (2003), he has launched new Eels tours with a warm-up show at the Santa Ana venue. "And we feel pretty good about our testing, so thank you!"

E and this current lineup of Eels should feel just fine, for despite the working-out-the-kinks nature of this gig, the band seemed sharp throughout 23 songs in 90 minutes, rocking like a roadhouse blues band on some numbers, dialing it down to introspective singer-songwriter territory on others.

The night opened with E walking on stage to accompany himself solo on electric guitar for "Daisies of the Galaxy," a song that, with its lyric about picking daisies from the flower bed of a Galaxy theater, provided a nice nod toward the night's location.

But "Daisies" is an older song, the title track of Eels' album released 10 years ago, something familiar to get things started. The bigger question of the night was how E would pick and choose from the 40 or songs he's released on a trilogy of new albums since last summer. As the night flowed on the answer eventually took shape: Hombre Lobo (from a year ago) and End Times (from earlier this year) each earned five spots in the set list, while Tomorrow Morning, due later this month, provided just two tunes.

So cheap seats at Honda cost almost as much as the choice ones in S.D.? And the good seats are $13 more than Ontario or L.A.? And that's because ...? I'd like to know, too. (Interestingly, the promoter's press release about these shows lists all of them, apart from S.D., at $39.50-$66.) Regardless, they all go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m.

Now that Steven Tyler and Joe Perry have kissed and made up -- gee, that didn't take very long, eh? -- and no one else in the band has a surgery planned, Aerosmith is claiming to be Cocked, Locked, Ready to Rock. I'll believe it when I see it, but that's the name of their current tour, anyway, kicking off in Oakland in July.

These stateside dates come after a handful of shows in South America, a stretch that, as I write this, probably just ended in Costa Rica, where the Boston boys were expected to play to that country's largest audience ever. (The Associated Press pic, by the way, is from 10 days ago in Lima, Peru.) Their run through Latin countries will next be followed by a string of dates throughout Europe.

Ticket prices are tba for Verizon but $57.75-$194.25 for Vegas, so I'd expect the orchestra seats in Irvine to be within $25 of that top amount. The Grand Garden gig, as with the Oakland show at the Oracle Arena, goes on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. The Verizon show goes up next week, with a pre-sale starting June 9 and the public on-sale slated for June 12 at 10 a.m.

I was busy at the OC Music Awards when Rolling Stone broke the sad news. Horrible is more like it: Mark Linkous, the tortured singer-songwriter from Virginia who created four works of dark despair and heart-wrenching beauty under the moniker Sparklehorse, committed suicide Saturday, and in rather gruesome fashion.

The first account of his death I saw, via Wikipedia (never to be fully trusted anyway, but especially not with breaking news), suggested that Linkous had blown the back of his head off with a shotgun -- and in such a way that he did not die instantly, but rather remained alive for another three hours after paramedics were called.

This presumably more reliable report from the New York Times, however, has his manager stating that the troubled indie-rock figure shot himself in the heart in an alley outside a friend's home in Knoxville, Tenn. His date of birth seems to be a sketchy matter, but more reputable sources seem to believe he was 47.

Rolling Stone and Pitchfork both have plenty of archival material to peruse, but I've yet to see anyone offer a detailed (let alone definitive) appreciation of Linkous' career, perhaps because even heavyweight music blogs don't update so thoroughly on weekends. Or maybe it's that 24 hours later the news itself is still so stunning, easily obliterating memories of the movingly melancholy music he made, much of it lushly inviting like the best Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev (whose Dave Fridmann was a longtime Sparklehorse assistant in the studio).

Most sites have contented themselves by recounting his resumé -- albums that are worth hearing (start with 1999's experimental Good Morning Spider then move quickly to 2001's more palatable It's a Wonderful Life, a depressingly ironic title now) as well as his noted collaborations (with Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, many more) and production work (chiefly Daniel Johnston's 2003 disc Fear Yourself).